Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

• Quiz results — your answers, the calculated socialist/capitalist/communist breakdown, and a coarse location derived from your IP address (country, and where available city/region/timezone). We do not collect precise GPS location.
• Account information — when you sign in with Google or Apple: your name, email address, and profile photo (as provided by that service), plus any display name and ideology you set.
• Membership & payments — if you become a Supporter, your subscription status and billing period. Card details are handled entirely by Stripe; we never see or store your card number.
• Community content — posts, direct messages, and profile details you choose to share with the members community.
• Technical data — basic device/browser information and usage analytics.

2. How we use your data

• To calculate and show your quiz result and history.
• To operate accounts, memberships, and the community.
• To show aggregate, anonymised global statistics on the dashboard.
• To keep the community safe (automated moderation of posts and messages).
• To process payments and manage subscriptions.
• To email you about your account and the community: a welcome email, an alert when a member messages you (at most once every 30 minutes per conversation), and a weekly community round-up (new members, members you might like to chat with, and board posts). Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link. The weekly round-up may suggest you to other members by your display name, ideology and country — the same details shown in the member directory (never your email or photo).

3. Service providers we share data with

We use trusted processors and share only what each needs to function:

• Google Firebase — hosting, authentication, and database.
• Stripe — subscription payments (see Stripe's privacy policy).
• Google Cloud Natural Language — automated abuse/spam screening of community text.
• Resend — sends our emails (your email address, name, and the email content).
• IP geolocation providers (e.g. Cloudflare / ipapi) — to derive coarse country/region from your IP.

We do not sell your personal data.

4. Google user data & Limited Use

When you sign in with Google, we access a limited set of Google user data from your Google Account: your name, email address, and profile photo. We use this data only to create and authenticate your account, show your name and photo within the members community, and email you about your account and community activity (new messages and a weekly community round-up — each email has an unsubscribe link). We store it in our Google Cloud / Firebase database and share it only with the service providers listed above that are needed to run the service. We never sell it.

The Socialist's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. In particular, we do not use Google user data to serve targeted or personalized advertising, do not sell it to data brokers, do not use it to determine creditworthiness or for lending, and do not use it to develop, improve, or train generalized/non-personalized AI or ML models. You can revoke our access at any time in your Google Account permissions or by deleting your account (below).

5. How we protect your data

Your data is stored on Google Cloud / Firebase infrastructure and is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and at rest. Access is restricted to the systems and personnel needed to run the service. Payments are processed by Stripe, a PCI-DSS-compliant provider — we never receive or store your card details.

6. Cookies & local storage

We use your browser's local/session storage to keep you signed in and to hold your latest quiz result temporarily. These are essential to the service.

7. Retention & deletion

You can delete your account at any time from My Account. Deleting your account permanently removes your profile, quiz history, membership record, and community content, and cancels any active subscription. Anonymous, aggregated statistics may be retained.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live (including under UK/EU GDPR and the CCPA), you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, and to object to certain processing. You can exercise most of these directly in your account, or contact us.

9. Children

The Socialist is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

10. Changes & contact

We may update this policy; material changes will be reflected by the "last updated" date above. Questions or requests: [email protected].